A government building in Belfast city centre has gone on the market for £2.5m.

Northland House, which is on Frederick Street, opposite the new Ulster University campus, has been home to the Department of Finance and other public-sector bodies.

The six-storey development, placed on the market by Lisney, includes almost 35,000 sq ft of floor space, with the potential to develop up to 93,200 sq ft, subject to planning.

The selling agents said it has the potential to become a boutique hotel, offices, student flats or residential accommodation, possibly with retail space and a restaurant on the ground floor.

Meanwhile, a report released earlier this month said Northern Ireland's commercial property market offered businesses and investors a higher rate of return than elsewhere in the UK and even in big cities such as Dublin.

According to commercial property and real estate services adviser CBRE's Northern Ireland Outlook 2018, prime yields - the annual rent achieved from a property divided by the property's value - are higher across all sectors in Northern Ireland.

Andrew Marston, the firm's director of UK office and industrial research welcomed the findings.

"On a global basis, we're beginning to see rising interest rates in the US and elsewhere and that will start to weigh on prime yields for commercial property," he said.